Influence of East Coast Editors on The Times
Re “Eastie Editors Are Colonizing L.A.,” Outside the Tent, Opinion, April 24: Parochial again? Jamie Court’s criticisms of the Los Angeles Times didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading The Times since I learned to read. I remember the pitifully local perspective the paper held for so long.
So [Editorial and Opinion Editor] Michael Kinsley has yet to mention Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger? He is one of the few. We are inundated with opinions about our governor from all over (including “East Coast power centers”). It took The Times far too long to wake up to the world around us. It’s a good thing that the paper now includes a multitude of ideas.
Doris Bloch
Los Angeles
I concur with many views expressed by Court. I did not realize that so many of the editors are from the East Coast. I do read the New York Times for a Northeast perspective, but I want something different in my hometown newspaper.
I miss a regular viewpoint on the Latino community, such as that of Frank del Olmo or Ruben Salazar. Surely there is someone waiting in the wings. The new columnists on the Commentary page do not seem to have identities that make me want to read them regularly.
I would like to see columnists writing about state politics, the mayoral election, energy, water and transportation problems in Los Angeles. I was offended when the Calendar section was reorganized with new ownership and the new column “New York, New York” was introduced. I noticed that Chris Erskine was retained, but the column by Sandy Banks, who had a distinctive voice as a single mother trying to deal with family issues, was discontinued. The Times needs to be a newspaper that reflects the Los Angeles area.
Carol Perry
Redondo Beach
Court (Pomona College class of 1989) writes excellently, and he heads an organization of which I certainly intend to learn more. He states that Pomona College used to call itself the “Harvard of the West.” However, in the old days, the word around Claremont (and on T-shirts) was: “Harvard -- Pomona College of the East.”
Whatever, maybe the New York Times, which Court accurately calls “the Gray Lady -- the Eastern icon of newspapers,” owes its current greatness to its executive editor, Bill Keller, Pomona College class of 1970.
Don Callarman
Downey